Valentine's Day - Beyond the Rose

Don't get stuck on roses. Tulips are just one of the many variates of flowers you can use to make an impression this Valentine's Day.

At the very heart of February is Valentine's Day, and with it comes an excellent chance to romance that sweetie of yours with a flowery token of your affection.

I’m talking mainly to you guys out there who understand that hearts and flowers are a winning combination but aren't entirely sure how to make a memorable impression. Sure, you could fall back on that old standby — a dozen long-stemmed red roses. But before you make the predictable move, consider some drawbacks to that plan and some sophisticated alternatives.

While 180 million thorny stems will go flying out florists’ doors on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day is probably the worst of all days to reach for the iconic rose. For one thing, prices soar when demand exceeds supply, as it can on our annual lovers’ holiday. But more important, the quality of many wholesale roses is not what one would hope given the distance they must travel in the dead of winter.

Once upon a time, roses were American-grown and often from local greenhouses, such as the roses that won Madison the title of “Rose City.” But in 1988, federal legislation aimed at encouraging our neighbors to the south to cultivate flowers instead of street drugs did away with tariffs on their floral exports.

Most winter roses are now raised in Central and South America, and many American growers, unable to compete with pitifully low Third World wages, have been forced into bankruptcy. Greenhouse workers, laboring chiefly in Colombia and Ecuador, not only remain poor but continue to suffer health problems from unregulated pesticide use. These are issues that can, and perhaps should, take the bloom off the rose.

Then there’s the time factor. With few exceptions, roses harvested in South America are already 4 or 5 days old and have spent more than half of their expected lifespan in transit by the time they are sold. Too often in the push to meet holiday demand, roses are cut while immature and may never open. (Sepals, the tiny green leaves just below the flower, bend away from the bud in mature blossoms; if they’re tight to the bud, the rose was cut too soon.)

It’s sad to spend lavishly, an average of $60 to $70, for roses that remain tightly clenched or fade to black before their time.

If only roses will do, consider seeking out the few American growers still up and running.
Two growers using certified sustainable practices are organicbouquet.com, offering pesticide-free long-stem roses for about $50 a dozen, and davidaustinroses.com, which sells Austin’s sumptuous English roses in bouquets averaging $85. The boon with Austin roses is not just sensuous form but heavenly fragrance, a lost quality in most florist bouquets. The varieties ‘Phoebe,’ ‘Rosalind,’ ‘Patience’ and ‘Cymbeline’ are the most highly perfumed.